‘Pixelsnap’ makes Google’s Pixel More Accessible

“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” is how the old adage goes.

That’s the thought that immediately sprung to mind when I learned about Google’s announcement of Pixelsnap at this week’s “Made By Google” event in New York City where the company announced the Pixel 10 and related devices. Pixelsnap is not at all hard to understand: it’s almost quite literally Apple’s MagSafe technology, just optimized for Android. Pixelsnap supports Qi2, as well as the Magnetic Power Profile.

While it’s commonplace for iOS and Android fans to derisively mock one another for being late to the proverbial party, feature-wise, the reality is the “partisanship” is misplaced and, frankly, childish. As a practical matter, the advent of Pixelsnap on the new Pixel 10 phones is a huge win for accessibility. The argument is the exact same as it is for MagSafe; to wit, that both use magnets for charging means more accessible alignment and less fiddling with a USB-C cable. As I’ve written innumerable times, the genius of implementing magnets into the iPhone (and now Pixel) transcends sheer convenience because the truth is not everyone can so easily charge their phone. For disabled people with any amalgamation of cognitive/motor/visual conditions, even the ostensibly mundane task of plugging a USB-C cable into the port on the phone can be an arduous, inaccessible task. Moreover, it’s not easy for every person to successfully navigate even wireless charging, as missing the so-called “sweet spot” can make someone think their phone is charging when it isn’t. Put simply, charging is not something to take for granted—not everyone has the best hand-eye coordination.

That Google has introduced Pixelsnap as a new feature needn’t be ridiculed. Nobody really and truly cares Apple beat Google by introducing MagSafe back in 2020 with the iPhone 12 lineup. The salient point should be how Pixelsnap makes Google’s phones more accessible to Android users. Hardware accessibility matters too—an idea which becomes more prominent with the purported super-thin iPhone 17 Air as well as every foldable phone—and technologies like MagSafe and Pixelsnap exemplify that ideal. The sniggering over innovation only amplifies the noise and obscures what really matters.

The “Made By Google” event is available to watch on YouTube.